Bingo has long been a popular game and various devices for use in association with the game have been developed. Traditionally, Bingo was played using hand cards sufficiently rigid to facilitate repeated use. The Bingo numbers were “cancelled” by applying a chip to the card. With the advent of large scale charity Bingos and commercial Bingo establishments, it has become more common to use paper Bingo sheets which are used only once. The announced numbers are typically cancelled by the use of a special marker or “dauber”.
A player often plays a plurality of Bingo cards at the same time. It has been found difficult to maintain a substantial number of cards aligned before a player. Because Bingo cards tend to be lightweight, it is necessary to secure the cards to prevent them from scattering on the table. This is often done by using tape to attach the cards to one another and prevent their moving around.
Various devices for supporting a plurality of Bingo cards have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,536 comprises a transparent acetate sheet and a backing plate. The Bingo cards are placed between the acetate sheet and the backing plate and are held in position by an adhesive coating on the back of the acetate sheet. The transparent acetate sheet has a plurality of holes corresponding to the Bingo numbers which can accommodate a dauber to mark the numbers on the card. Over time, however, the edges of the holes are likely to get marked by inaccurately placed marks, making it more difficult to readily see which numbers have been marked.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,830 discloses a Bingo card holder comprising a plurality of transparent pockets which each can hold a Bingo card. The upper surface of the pocket can be marked by conventional erasable markers to identify the called numbers on the cards retained in the pockets. The type of device requires cleaning between each play.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,474 also discloses a Bingo card holder. The holder comprises a base with perforations arranged in rows and columns whereby Bingo cards fit between the perforations. The cards are held in place by means of a re-usable adhesive layer on the base. A thin transparent cover sheet is also provided. The holder is typically a large rectangle with five rows and five columns which makes it fairly bulky to carry around.
Bingo card holders currently in use have several disadvantages. They are often expensive to manufacture, bulky to transport or wear out easily. Thus, there remains a need for an improved Bingo card holder which can be re-used multiple times and which can be easily carried in a pocket or purse.